Monday, February 25, 2008

Dodge...ouch...ball...'08

We have just had the 1st and probably last Dodge Bowl 2008 Championship with friends on our business team. We rented a gym, split up in 2 rather large teams, and each had jerseys made. We were the red team. Here's a great group shot of our team. I'm on the bottom left and David is right behind me.
After a little "giving of the jerseys" ceremony, the referee's lined the balls up in the middle and when the whistle blew, a few players from each team ran for the ball. I was never one of those people. My strategy was to stay behind someone and avoid all balls. Then only if one came by me, I would throw it or give it to a bigger, stronger guy to throw. That strategy worked well in the beginning, but... Never mind, I'm getting ahead of myself.

So here are the teams getting ready to run for the balls in the middle.
And here are a couple of action shots. (I'm # 2)









Here we are in full force, beating the other team. Notice, they only have 1 guy left.
Well, we were actually pretty evenly matched since we each won 4 games and had to end the match on a tie due to official injury. And guess who sustained that official injury? Yep, you guess it. ME! So my little strategy wasn't so effective when I was the only one left facing several highly competitive, strong guys on the opposing team.
We were all having a good time and I was doing great, dodging the ball like a pro, when it happened. All I remember is seeing this bright yellow ball come rocketing across the gym aiming directly for my face, and I couldn't throw my hands up or duck quick enough before, WHAM!!! It hit me smack in the middle of the face and I just cupped my hands over my face and fell to the ground. I won't go into all the details, but I did have a bloody nose and rather swollen lips. I had to spend the rest of the night icing my face on and off, and even some today as well. But hey, at least I didn't have to pay a fortune to get full, sexy lips for a few days :)

Here I am recovering. I am pleased to tell you that I am doing just fine - no broken nose or busted lips, just nice plump, fuller lips (and it doesn't even hurt anymore!)
Apart from the official injury that ended the game in a tie, we did have fun, and who knows, maybe there will be a tie breaker some other time, but I will be sitting in the stands for that one and cheering the red team on to a sure victory!

Friday, February 15, 2008

Falling Behind and Catching Up...

Wow! I just noticed that it has been over a month today since my last post. But there is a good reason, I promise.

We have had SOO much going on recently, that I just haven't had the time or felt like I could take the time to sit down and blog. And I still have so much to do now, but I know that if I don't go ahead and catch up, then I'll be too far behind to do it later.

I actually have several things to catch up on here, and the biggest one being....drum roll, please....WE'VE MOVED!!! This is actually the 1st move since we have been married. We spent some of last week packing, and then made the big move (30 mins closer into town)on Saturday. Then we have spent some of this week unpacking. But like I said, there is still more to do...See?









You can't really tell what the place looks like from these pictures. Once it is all set up, I will take some good pictures and you will be able to see how nice it is. Actually we really only have 2 rooms to unpack still. It is very livable in all the other areas. Anyway, the reason we moved is to actually live in the city that we live our life in, instead of driving 30 minutes away just to sleep at our place. So even though we have only been here 1 week. It is sooo nice having everything so close. It is also going to be really nice to have a guest room with a bed for anyone who comes to visit. But just give us another week or so, because the 1st picture is of that room. The second picture is me taking a break in the sunroom/office. So it's a little bigger than where we were before, and it has a very nice, open floor plan. There are also some other great features like walk-in closets in both the rooms (I get the one in the master bedroom and David gets the one in the guest room), a separate laundry room instead of a laundry closet, a coat closet, a pantry, a linen closet, a wood burning fireplace, and a roomy balcony with a sliding glass door off the master bedroom. And that's just inside the place. We are also in a complex that has great amenities - lighted tennis and basketball courts (which the guys will take full advantage of when it's a little warmer) a fitness center with a raquetball court (which I'm excited about brushing up my skills on and getting exercise) a beach volleyball court, and a nice sized pool off the clubhouse (those are going to be great in the summer!) We also have a little pond with a fountain and picnic tables around it, and just across the street is a great walking trail. I have a feeling that I am going to LOVE living here for a while.

Ok, enough about that big news. Also on Saturday another milestone was celebrated. My little brother's 21st Birthday Party!!! Can you believe it?!? Michael turned 21 on Sunday!!! That sure makes me feel old. Anyway, my parents threw him a little party on Saturday night, so we moved all day then went to the party that night. We were exhausted after that, but we had a good time.

Here are some pictures taken at his party. The venue was the youth center at my parent's church, and most of the guests were Michael's friends from working with the youth. We all had pizza and wings and then this cake with ice cream. Most of the time we just stood around chatting, but we also watched a really funny comedian (actually David's favorite), Brian Regan, on the big screen. It was a fun birthday celebration.










And speaking of celebrations, this last section catches me up to the present. We are not typically very much into making a really big deal about Valentine's Day, but we do take advantage of the time to spend some good quality time together and remind each other how much we love each other. So we had a really nice time last night. We went out shopping 1st to get a few things we still needed for our place, then David cooked a gourmet dinner for me and wrote me a nice poem in my card (He's so sweet!) We had almond crusted salmon and sweet potatoes with steamed vegetables. And he didn't know it at the time, but I was providing the dessert. I surprised him with an enormous heart shaped chocolate chip cookie that I decorated like a valentine. I wanted to do something to surprise him, and since we had just moved, there wasn't much I could do. But I had a big tub of cookie dough in the fridge and I just bought a few little icing tubes on a whim the other day, so that was perfect. I smushed the dough down onto a large cookie sheet, then shaped it into a heart by hand and baked it for about 20 mins. Once it was completely cool, I decorated it. It turned out really well and David really liked it.

Then we spent the rest of the night putting some things together in the house, and just hanging out in our new place.

So that pretty much catches me up to the present. Coming soon (after we get completely situated) pictures of the new place!